Murder of Dawn Magyar

Dawn Lee Swan Magyar was born March 28, 1952, in Corunna, Michigan, to Eleanor and Ralph Swan, and grew up with brothers Max and Larry, graduating from her local high school in 1970. She married Don Magyar, and by early 1973 the couple lived in Chesaning, Michigan, with their one-year-old son.

On January 27, 1973, Magyar went grocery shopping at a shopping center in Owosso, Shiawassee County, Michigan. A friend saw her briefly at the checkout line and watched her leave the store with her purchases. She never returned home, and her husband reported her missing. Police later found the borrowed truck she had been driving still in the parking lot, with her purchases inside and her keys scattered nearby, indicating a forceful abduction. A search involving roughly 4,000 volunteers failed to locate her. On March 4, 1973, two brothers tapping maple trees on their family farm in Saginaw County discovered her body in a wooded area in Chapin, Michigan. A medical examiner determined she had been raped and shot three times, in the head and back, with a .22 caliber weapon, likely within 90 minutes of her abduction.

In June 1974, a rusted but loaded .22 revolver believed to be the murder weapon was recovered from the Shiawassee River in Owosso; it contained three spent rounds matching the ammunition brands used in the killing. The weapon was traced to a 1965 purchase by a man named Robert Shaw at a pawn shop in Yuma, Arizona. In 1976, Magyar's wallet and identification were found along the same riverbank.

The case was reactivated in 1995 when a detective sergeant recognized that emerging DNA technology could be applied to sperm specimens collected from Magyar's body at the time of the crime. Testing was conducted by the Michigan State Police DNA Laboratory and an independent laboratory. In 1998, police located Robert Shaw, who said he had lost the gun years earlier; DNA testing cleared him. Shaw later told police that his ex-wife had dated a man named Jerald Leroy Wingeart, who may have taken the gun. Investigators learned Wingeart had a prior 1961 conviction for raping a blind University of Michigan student and robbing her escort, for which he served six of an eight-year sentence.

Police obtained Wingeart's DNA from discarded cigarette butts, which matched crime-scene samples. Investigators also placed him in the Owosso area around the time of the murder, though no personal link to Magyar was established; they believed he had randomly selected her as a victim. On March 7, 2001, Wingeart, then 60 and living in Center Line, Michigan, was arrested and charged with murder; kidnapping and rape charges were barred by statutes of limitations. At trial in November 2001, Wingeart claimed the sexual contact was consensual, but experts testified his DNA was deposited during the narrow window of Magyar's abduction and killing. On November 27, 2001, a jury convicted him of first-degree felony and premeditated murder, and in 2002 he was sentenced to life without parole. His appeals were rejected by the Michigan Appeals Court in 2003 and the Michigan Supreme Court in 2004. Wingeart later died in prison; his Michigan Department of Corrections status was recorded as discharged on August 20, 2022.